Shirts, waistcoats and bow ties are now
usually made of
cotton
marcella, although plain linen shirts
and white or off-white silk ties and waistcoats
are sometimes worn. Shirt studs and cufflinks
should be silver or white. A white handkerchief
and flower may be worn. At occasions of
state, and in the presence of royalty, state
decorations are worn by those who have been
awarded them: miniature medals plus up to
four breast stars, a narrow neck riband
and a broad riband (sash).

Outdoors a black silk plush
top hat
is appropriate, with an
opera cloak or overcoat, even during
the summer. White gloves, scarf and cane
are optional extras.

When it is worn

Like black tie, evening dress is generally
only worn after 6 p.m. (see note 1 for an
exception). Occasions that require white
tie are increasingly rare, but in the United
Kingdom these still include:

State dinners (e.g. dinners with
visiting heads of state)

Commemoration balls and May balls
(at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge
respectively)

Hunt balls

Some balls during the London Season

In Austria and elsewhere in Continental
Europe there are many balls where white
tie is worn.

Conductors of an orchestra or symphony
playing classical music often are dressed
in white tie.

Related forms of dress

White ties were historically worn by
clerics and in the professions that formerly
were filled by priests and minor clerics.
In various forms they are still worn as
part of:

Academic dress
(in the older universities such as Oxford,
Cambridge and Durham)

White ties are not worn with military
mess dress,
where black ties are worn even with the
most formal variants. In the Royal Navy,
mess dress (as opposed to mess undress)
requires a white waistcoat but a black tie.

Note

1 In the United Kingdom civilian
day
court dress
(in the Royal court) is similar to white
tie, but nowadays white tie is worn in its
place to the most formal state occasions,
e.g. by foreign ambassadors at the State
Opening of Parliament. This is the case
even though such occasions occur during
the day.

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